Why does the deforestation of large areas of (rain)forest affect the climate?

Every tree that is felled and removed from the forest will sooner or later rot or be burned, whether as seven-times recycled paper or furniture that has been handed down for years. A carbon stock that has built up over thousands of years in the biomass of the forest is thus released back into the atmosphere as carbon dioxide within a very short time.

Deforestation not only results in huge CO2 emissions, which accelerate global warming. Forests have many other important functions for our global climate, which are not only lost through deforestation, but also have an additional negative impact on the climate.

The drought and heat that follow forest loss in turn have a negative impact on forests: scientists estimate that a temperature increase of two to three degrees Celsius would cause the Amazon rainforest to become largely desertified. Since deforestation also results in the removal of nutrient-rich topsoil and the irretrievable displacement of species, even replanting can never restore the original conditions.

Between 1/8 and 1/6 of all annual emissions are caused by deforestation and the drainage of forest peatlands – meaning that the loss of forest area has a greater impact than the global transport sector. And the worst thing is that for every tree we cut down, we not only release more CO2 into the atmosphere, we also destroy our greatest ally in the fight against climate change.